What Makes A Word Real?

Anne Curzan, guest speaker in the 2014 TED talks, discusses the origin of common-day words. She relays an inside view into the mind of an dictionary editor, being one herself, and offers that language is determined by the general populous. She presents the idea that, in order to be real, a word would only need to be commonly used among the people.

I agree. She further explains that dictionary editors often feel flustered in trying to keep up with the change in words, and dread placing undeserved importance on words that only become fads in the end. Because of our tech savvy world, new words such as "app", and the prefix "e-" have become second nature. These are commonly used, and have now been counted officially into the dictionary:

-App Definition-

Anne introduces the point that language is not based on personal opinion, only on what is widely used. No matter how absurd a word sounds to a singular person, if it is used, it is indeed a word. One such word formed more recently is "hangry" (hungry+angry). Although, it was most likely begun as a joke, most people understand the meannig, and popularity and common use has increased greatly. In another note, pre-existing words evolve. The word decimate used to mean "to kill one in every ten", but now means to "kill, destroy a large percentage of". No word is safe from the changing of culture.

Humans have a unique ability to continue creating new words, expanding upon what is already existing. If a word is created, and continues to be used, it will eventually become part of the common vocabulary. The general public has always decided which words are real or not, whether they were concious of it or not.